Nate Colbert, Early Padres Dude

Long before Trevor Hoffman, before Tony Gwynn, even before Randy Jones, there was Nate Colbert - the first San Diego Padres "star", and pretty much the first Padre to be recognized on more than just his one de rigeur Topps baseball card each year. He made all-star teams; he hit home runs; he gave San Diego someone to cheer for during 1969 and first half of the 70s.

He's also a player I collect. A little easier than some modern players, for sure, but one thing that's very sobering is to go onto the Trading Card Database (i.e. tcdb.com), look up a player whom you "thought" you had all the cards for, and then realize you're not even close. Well, I'm a little closer with Colbert now. Spent a bit of time on online sites trying to pick up a few that I didn't have recently, and grabbed these 5 - including the Milton Bradley game card thing to your left.

According to my research, there are 11 normally-sized (I hate odd-sized) Nate Colbert cards I don't yet have, and they're on this player want list here. Please let me know if you've got extras of any of these sitting around, not doing you much good...!

Here's What Nate Colbert Did Next

Hey, I'm back over here at Card Hemorrhage. I think I know how to work my scanner a little better, so hopefully my 2+ -week absence didn't drive you away from the hobby completely.

Today we're going to rev things back up with a guy whose player collection I think I'm pretty much done with. It's Nate Colbert - early San Diego Padres slugger and team star through the first half of the 1970s. What did Nate do next to earn himself a spot on a baseball card, post-retirement? Well, he was the hitting coach for the Riverside Red Wave in the early 1990s, and earned himself not one but four minor league baseball cards in that capacity, and I'm delighted to say I've now grabbed all four.

I've also got a couple of cool food issue Colbert oddballs to share with you, but let's do that somewhere down the road. I'll try to get a plethora of card posts going in the next few days. What else are you going to do over the pandemic holiday, right?

Just Started a Nate Colbert Collection

I'm not 100% sure why I started a Nate Colbert personal collection, but I have. I think it has something to do with my connection to him as one of the San Diego Padres' only historical "stars" while I was growing up - though his best years with the club pre-date me being old enough to pay attention. Randy Jones won a Cy Young award; but before Tony Gwynn, it felt pretty barren in San Diego - hence my fascination with Colbert back then, a guy who clubbed 38 homers in 1970 and another 38 in 1972. Or maybe it was him hitting 5 home runs in a doubleheader - see card below.

And no, he wasn't a star per se - he made 3 All-Star teams, and he got some MVP votes in 1972 - but in 1974 he really started to fall off a cliff, hitting .207 that year and then below the Mendoza line in 1975 and 1976. After 5 hitless at-bats as a DH for Oakland in '76, he was out of baseball. Yeah, that's the kind of guy who looms large in my mind but in few others, and hence the perfect guy for me to collect. I just picked up a bunch of his cards this week. This is what they look like.